Anybody want to make some map designs?

21

The 4Square
8 Player
[0,0],[0,1],[1,0],[1,1],[0,4],[0,5],[1,4],[1,5]

16 Player
[0,0],[0,1],[1,0],[1,1],[0,4],[0,5],[1,4],[1,5],[4,0],[5,0],[4,1],[5,1],[4,4],[5,5],[4,5],[5,4]

32 Player
[0,0],[0,1],[1,0],[1,1],[0,4],[0,5],[1,4],[1,5],[4,0],[5,0],[4,1],[5,1],[4,4],[5,5],[4,5],[5,4],[11,0],[12,0],[15,0],[16,0],[11,1],[12,1],[15,1],[16,1],[11,4],[12,4],[15,4],[16,4],[11,5],[12,5]

64 Player [0,0],[0,1],[1,0],[1,1],[0,4],[0,5],[1,4],[1,5],[4,0],[5,0],[4,1],[5,1],[4,4],[5,5],[4,5],[5,4],[11,0],[12,0],[15,0],[16,0],[11,1],[12,1],[15,1],[16,1],[11,4],[12,4],[15,4],[16,4],[11,5],[12,5],[15,5],[16,5],[0,11],[0,12],[1,11],[1,12],[0,15],[0,16],[1,15],[1,16],[4,11],[5,11],[4,12],[5,12],[4,15],[5,16],[4,16],[5,15],[11,11],[12,11],[15,11],[16,11],[11,12],[12,12],[15,12],[16,12],[11,15],[12,15],[15,15],[16,15],[11,16],[12,16],[15,16],[16,16]

The idea behind this is that players are grouped into clusters of 4. At a distance from their cluster of 4 are other clusters of 4 and in 32 & 64 player games there are further clusters at a greater distance again.
The perfect 64 player scenario would see 16 4x4 initial combats, when these were resolved the 16 survivors would then meet in 4 4x4 combats, with the 4 winners then moving into a final 4x4 fight.
I could see this working well in a dark galaxy, where the direction to the next cluster is known.
The clusters above are set at 3 & 6 LY apart, game testing and some feedback may find these distances need to be adjusted.

22

64 Player, Circular (Doughnut/Torus/Ring)
[1,11],[1,15],[2,13],[3,7],[3,9],[3,11],[3,15],[3,17],[3,19],[4,13],[5,5],[5,8],[5,10],[5,16],[5,18],[5,21],[7,3],[7,7],[7,19],[7,23],[8,5],[8,21],[9,3],[9,23],[10,5],[10,21],[11,1],[11,3],[11,23],[11,25],[13,2],[13,4],[13,22],[13,24],[15,1],[15,3],[15,23],[15,25],[16,5],[16,21],[17,3],[17,23],[18,5],[18,21],[19,3],[19,7],[19,19],[19,23],[21,5],[21,8],[21,10],[21,16],[21,18],[21,21],[22,13],[23,7],[23,9],[23,11],[23,15],[23,17],[23,19],[24,13],[25,11],[25,15]

23

I’d like to see that, actually. I want to take a crack at making something like the Twin Elliptical map from Endless Space. Can you maybe put it in a Dropbox, or on Mega, or give us a public Google Docs link? That way you don’t have to e-mail it to everyone who wants it.

24

Sorry I have been taking a while to get this feature actually implemented. There are a few bugs that have popped up that really should be fixed first.

Its on the top of my list of actual fun stuff to implement.

25

Cool! It really does sound like it could add a lot to the game.

Question: how are you handling star distribution? Are you just doing something like calculating a convex hull around all the home stars, expanding it by some amount to create the boundaries of the galaxy, and then distributing the stars uniformly or using something like Perlin noise? Or, are you centering the distribution around home stars? Or something else?

In Hex galaxies, obviously, the galaxy is implicitly made up of hexes, so you can distribute stars within each hex depending on whether it’s a hex with a player in it or an empty hex. And in circular galaxies, you have a very explicitly defined shape, which makes the distribution straightforward. But if we’re making custom galaxy shapes, I imagine that it’s a lot more difficult to come up with something that produces good distributions every time.

I’m asking because I’m wondering about map shapes that are designed to create, say, large impassible voids. For instance, in a lot of old RTSes there would be a map type like “Continents” where, until you have the technology (and cash) to cross the ocean, you’re only competing against people on the same continent. If you’re centering the star distribution on home stars, that could be reproduced pretty easily by just having groups of home stars with a large gap between them. If the distribution is more uniform, it would be more difficult.

Obviously, simplicity is key for something like this, but if you’re centering the distribution on home stars, maybe map layouts could also specify locations that have a star cluster but not a player spot, to give slightly finer control over how the generation happens. (It might also relieve you of some of the difficulty of coming up with an algorithm that handles every weirdly-shaped galaxy people input; if they give some bizarre shape your algorithm doesn’t work well with, they can just tweak it themselves.) Just a suggestion, anyway.

Also, will you be providing some kind of preview when creating the game of what the galaxy will look like? That would probably save people creating a bunch of test games just to see if their map layout works right.

26

I scatter the stars in a circle around the home star. From memory, its not completely random, I believe I make and array of angles, and an array of distances, then randomly pick and angle and distance and place the star.

So for example if the stars per player was 12 the angles array would look like [0, 30, 60, 90, etc ect]. The distance array would be a range between some small distance and I think 2x home star distance.

Each players stars actually “overlap” quite a lot.

27

Ahh, okay, so we can make maps like I’m thinking of just by placing the home stars in the right places. That’s good to know, thanks!

28

My Excel Coordinates spreadsheet

https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/55181087/NP2%20Coordinates.xlsx

29

Sorry for taking my time, but my version of the editor can be found at:

Please download your local copy from the File / Download. No warranty of any kind given. :wink:

30

First pass of this is in and working.

Dysp’s 16 player Spiral

At the moment, each player start should be 1 unit apart. Dysps maps work well but Dave yours are a little too spread out.

It does occur to me now that one unit apart doesn’t offer much flexibility, my question to you guys, what scale should I use?

In a medium random hex galaxy each player start is 12 light years? Should we use that?

Jay.

31

Spiral isn’t the first thing that comes to my mind with that…

2 Likes
32

I will revisit my designs.

I suggest we stick with the name spiral for that design.

33

I also thought, since I was messing around with this stuff I should add a symmetrical distribution of stars you can use if you want to.

This is 32 stars per player in circle map.

34

Those are cool. How about a fractal snowflake pattern. A circle made up of branching Ys out from the center, so until you get extended levels of range, you have to follow your branch into the center.

35

Oh man - this is pretty cool! I don’t know much about programming/json - but I’m going to learn so I can do some! :smile:
I’d be even better if you’re able to control the resources on each star - like give the centre star in Jay’s example above SUPER good resources, making it a rush to the middle.

36

For clarification, in the initial posting you mention that the designs need to be scaled to allow space between the home systems. (depending on the home star distances)
Does this need to be done manually or is this something which is done automatically when the map is created?
In other words if I am creating a new custom map do I need to scale it myself or is this done in the code?

37

I drew myself a map on graph paper, and to simplify it, I used small numbers. When I put them in, they were right on top of each other even with it set to Far. So I tripled my numbers and got a much better design. See it in my other post:

38

I have been working on a Dark game with a random star layout and can now offer you my first live game

8 Player
Premium Only
Dark
Turn Based
$1000 Star cash

I have no idea what the exact layout of the home stars is in this game, so am just as in the dark as the other players.

39

Jay, what was the settings you used to get that map? I tried:
[[3,0],[2,1],[2,2],[5,2],[6,2],[3,3],[4,3],[7,3],[0,4],[3,4],[4,4],[1,5],[2,5],[5,5],[5,6],[4,7]]
and it spat out a very tiny map with each homeworld being less than 2 light years apart (settings were 24 stars/player and ‘far’). You can see it here> Neptune's Pride

Any thoughts on what I’m doing wrong?

40

Double or triple all of your numbers and try it again. The Far impacts the distance of the random scatter not the home world positions.

I did map mine out on graph paper, then ended up having to triple the numbers. I think Jay said you should aim for about 12 points between home worlds.

1 Like